going big.....

ok, so....i slept well.....what with the soft rain....and woke up at 7:30 am refreshed and ready to....start cooking......i made 2 vegetarian enchilada casseroles and spanish rice for this evening, and then moved on to pineapple kuchen for breakfast tomorrow, cumin lentil soup, onion nan (from a mix) and potato latkes for lunch and spinach stuffed wontons for an appetizer at some point....i also made a lovely pasta salad, and pita chips to eat with the hummus i bought at the aldi's......and....then i moved on to sewing projects...i repaired 2 pairs of khakis and 1 pair of shorts, and then recovered the chaise longue pad.......and refreshed the flowers in the vase...and did a load of personal laundry....and all the while watched wimbledon tennis......and now i do believe i might just go out on the deck, and sit on my newly recovered chaise longue, and read for a spell before i shower and drive to lexington to pick up the middle child.....

smart friends

ok, so.....i want to pay homage to my much smarter friends who are so much better than I at wordtwist.....one of my favorite facebook games....thanks for coming out and playing so often.....

heifer project

ok, so we are fans of the heifer project....we donate to this charity in lieu of gifts to family members....this is from jezebel.com

Beatrice Biira, the "Beatrice" of Beatrice's Goat, graduated from Connecticut College last weekend and is headed to the Clinton School of Public Service in Arkansas for her Master's degree before going back to Uganda to work for a non-profit. Beatrice's family's rise out of poverty was aided by Heifer International, which allows people like us to purchase livestock for families like Beatrice's. The goat Beatrice's family received served as a source of nutrition and income for her family, which allowed Beatrice to attend school, which led to scholarships and to her being the first person in her village to get a college degree from America

almost off

ok, so....i work today then have 4 days off, counting the 4th and the extra day on monday......i will have take 2 such long weekends this summer instead of an entire week....saving the remainder of my accrued time to visit austria in the late fall and/or spring......i understand that rain storms have been predicted for tomorrow......not to worry as long as the bad weather stops in time for my boy's plane trip from london to lexington.....yeah, well...it is not a direct flight, but y'all know what i mean.....

glorious gossip....

ok, so this from wonkette...

Charles “Chip” Pickering is the only Mississippi Republican left in the House. He is the ultra-conservative son of famous racist/civil rights champion and retired federal judge Charles Pickering. Chip announced in August that he was quitting Congress so he could, of course, spend more time with his family, and get a lucrative lobbying job. The lobbying job will surely come, but on Friday it was announced that Chip is divorcing his wife so he can spend more time with all the various women he’s been connected with over the years. What, a Republican in Congress who commits adultery with the opposite sex?

back to jane.....

ok, so....so i walked on the treadmill when i got home from taking my mother to a medical appt....and the british murder mystery video was scratched, and kept stopping and starting....and i put it away and loaded the jane austen book club instead.....seemed a better choice than murder, anyway.....i needed to walk to blow off steam from the medical appt.....i startled my mother by going into her surgeon appt with her.....and by inquiring about physical therapy......but my boldness was unnecessary, as the surgeon told my mother that she has no need for either hip replacements or knee replacements...and that her arthritis has not gotten to the bone-on-bone stage....and he not only prescribed physical therapy, he prescribed water aerobics.......which she used to do when she first moved to town......and he gave her a cortisone shot.....which seemed to mollify her, and by the time we got back home she was walking better......the scenario of serial-complainer mother and skeptical daughter go to the doctor could be a sub-plot theme for an updated austenesque novel.....

library books

ok, so.....i went by the library for the second time in less than a week, to return what i borrowed on saturday and to look for ore...i had borrowed 2 films....2 days in paris with julie delpy and friends with money with jennifer aniston....found both lacking......my spouse insisted that the only reason to watch the first was because it took place in paris......mostly it was talk,talk,talk about infidelity.....oh my.....i brought home 2 british made-for-tv movies...the first is leo mckern as rumpole of the bailey in what appeared to be the film that inspired the series....mckern still had dark hair and he did not have all of his side-kicks that included phillida erskine-brown.....she for whom we named the cat.....if for no other reason than a rumpole rerun was on pbs when daddy brought home the kitten....and she had a hyphenated last name.....i started to read one of the mysteries i brought home, and found it neither cozy nor charming.....same with the second...and i put them down.....i was not in the mood for hard-boiled and sassy....speaking of rumpole and the old bailey.....our middle child is now in london...safely i would suppose.......and possibly eating cheese and pickle sandwiches in pubs....rumpole ate his with a shot of rum with a guinness chaser.....and then went on back to court.....i'd have had to take a nap after such a lunch......i do happen to have a collection of rumpole cases upstairs.....might be better than the borrowed hardboil.......

emptying nest

ok, so...on this day the youngest goes to 4-h camp...which will leave us temporarily empty-nested......a reality that will be remedied on friday when all re-converge for a few weeks of togetherness......before scattering once again......as for this MM....i have enjoyed the time spent with my adult children passing through the homeplace on their ways to where-ever......

spell check

ok, so.....i have a hankering to read a book i have blogged about before.....one of the few novels my grandmother c. kept at her house....i read it over at least one of my yearly solo summer visits to her farm....i have no idea which of my cousins was lucky enough to have gotten this book when she died.....i recalled it as a girl of the linderlost....and recently when i decided to do a google search so that i could buy a copy for myself......maybe even a similar volume published in 1909 rather than a newer version......but my google search came back fruitless......except for my original blog about the book...which meant that i had the title wrong.....how does one find a title when one does nto know the correct title?......this morning there was an email from alibris books in my junk folder...surely they would have a line on this classic tale.....they had no girl of the linderlost........ what they did have was a girl of the limberlost...what a difference a single letter can make with insensitive search engines.....alibris does have several original copies...some in better condition than others.....eureka...

petunias.....

ok, so.....i walked out onto my back deck this morning, and startled a squirrel who was busily munching my petunias.....no wonder they did not seem to grow.....what with a furry creature trimming them back on a daily basis......i also suspect the furry creatures have shirred off my kale and spinach plants....such as they are....it is a good thing we do not have to survive off of our home grown produce.....i began my errands with the displaced library......and have already polished off a cozy murder mystery that features a middle-aged widow living in a cozy cabin with rosa new dawn at her doorstep......i borrowed the 2 sequels........based solely on the name of the grand rose mentioned in the first paragraph......a bulb catalog was in my saturday mail stack.....in addition to my middle child's grades 3 A's, and A+ and an A-.......i could not be prouder of a child who takes an extra class each semester.....but i digress from bulbs.....i am already thinking to my new bed in the spring....and basically planning around frittilaria.....an unusual spring plant sold in a trio....orange-ish.....which could go well with some lovely daffodils and tulips.....and iris....to bloom just until all of the perennials i planted this season come up.......gardening is such a hopeful hobby......speaking of which...while i was in the aldi this afternoon, i spied the missionary who wanted so badly to proselytize underneath my arbor rose a few weeks back.....she did not seem to recognize me.... which is just as well....given that i have spoken of her visit far and wide......and i must say...that i feel every bit as optimistic about the future of our country at this very moment as i did that day.....the lexington herald leader featured a piece by its religion columnist...paul prather...this morning...who chimed in with yet another disavowal of dr dobson......i have read so many i am getting them all mixed up in my mind.....and so i will close this entry with a few thoughts of my own.....for the bible-thumping right to put forward a candidate who is married to another woman while his first wife still lives.....jesus called that sort of person an adulterer.....then nothing that his supporters can say about the religious thoughts of my candidate holds any sway.....

mccain mashup

ok, so this youtube offering has mccain enmeshed in a madonna video......it is bloody brilliant.....

dobson versus obama

ok, so i am highly amused that dr. dobson decided to throw his weight around in this election cycle.....by accusing my man obama of misconstruing the bible.....the tired evangelical focus on social issues like abortion and gay marriage are not playing well these days, with so many of those who used to be associated with the christian right now wanting to focus on global warming and protecting the earth god gave us all.......dobson's base is shrinking, and i am pleased to see that obama is not afraid to court those folks.....

9 kids.....

ok, so....at the 1st home swim meet on wednesday night we marveled at the family of 9 children that participated on the local rec team.....well....not all 9...the three oldest sisters are either in high school or in college...and they were in charge of their younger siblings who appeared to be between the ages of 4 and 12....neither mamma nor pappa were in evidence...which made we wonder if there were not more children at home.....and so these young swimmers had only the cheers of their sisters, who likely wished they were somewhere other than at a swim meet in the 90+ degree sun......which reminded me of my spouse and his multi-child family.....he recalls (sadly) that the year he was mvp for little league baseball, his parents did not manage to come to a single game......whatever one says about having lots and lots of children......having so many that one cannot manage to be there to cheer them on seems like just too many children.....

celebration

ok, so this lovely english-style rose by David Austen...celebration is blooming in my new bed...and it is just lovely....

seeing eye cat....

okk, so this from jezebel.com.....Take the heartbreakingly angelic goodness of a seeing-eye animal, add a dash of inter-species friendship, and you've got a recipe for tears. "Cashew, a 14 year old Labrador Retriever owned by Terry Burns in Middleburg, Pennsylvania, is blind and deaf. Her best friend is a red tabby cat named Libby. Libby has become Cashew's seeing-eye cat. She guides Cashew around obstacles, leads her to the food dish and even sleeps next to her every night."

power sweaters....

ok, so....i enjoy a good piece on power sweaters......

teary-eyed.....

ok, so....the olympics are coming up sometime in late summer....seems like a long time off...but the tear-jerker stories have already squeezed my heartstrings.....i cannot pick up a paper or surf a site without some story of tissue proportions.....like the iowa gymnast whose gym was flooded despite the efforts of everybody she and her coach every knew in iowa.....filling sandbags and such.....and this story of a runner and coach.....i could just sit and cry rather than read these heart-wrenching tales of personal achievement....and yet...my youngest cries out at the screen when watching the 15 year-old divers....and admonishes their dedication.....this from someone who knows not a shred of personal commitment......if i cannot do it today it is not worth doing...or some version of this mantra......teary-eyed awe is worthy only of teary-eyed accomplishment.....

stuff

ok, so.....i was saddened to hear that George Carlin died suddenly over the weekend.....NPR did their post-6:30 am piece on his supreme court case involving his 7 words you cannot say on television...but i shall remember his for his piece on stuff....this is just an excerpt....i encourage you to watch it on youtube..

A house is just a pile of stuff with a cover on it. You can see that when you're taking off in an airplane. You look down, you see everybody's got a little pile of stuff. All the little piles of stuff. And when you leave your house, you gotta lock it up. Wouldn't want somebody to come by and take some of your stuff. They always take the good stuff. They never bother with that crap you're saving. All they want is the shiny stuff. That's what your house is, a place to keep your stuff while you go out and get...more stuff!

power

ok, so......after a powernap.......i rallied to complete the bushtrimming with a repaired powercord.......i finished just before the winds started to pick up and i felt a few drops of rain....must not tempt fate with electrical appliances in the rain.......i did not manage to get to the semi-circle of low boxwood in the corner of the yard......these started out as tiny edging shrubs....and i let them get out of hand so that they are not almost too high to a frame to the solomon seal in the middle.....trimming them has always been problematic, as they are on a hill....does one try to make each bush squared off, of make the flow downhill smooth across the tops........luckily one's mistakes grow out like a bad haircut.....speaking of power...i have discovered that our smokies campground has neither electric nor showers......which i can take for 2 nights if the company is good...and going off the grid for a couple of days could only be good for me.....i WILL problem-solve a way to make my morning coffee.....i vaguely recall us having a small camp-stove here.....i cannot recall my last coffee-less morning....i CAN recall my last showerless day......it can be done......i have visions of a 4 day hike across the southern island of new zealand......which would require several showerless days...might as well get in training for such things now.....got to keep these goals and dreams ahead of me like a carrot in front of the mule....in these post-midlife crisis menopausal days, i feel a power surge coming on....

rhythms

ok, so.....i was studying my sunday school lesson the on the 104th psalm.....which alludes to life's rhythms.....and my spouse informed me that two of our longest married friends were no longer a couple.....seems she went to new orleans to help with the hurricane relief and never came back.....their children are the same ages as our two eldest........how can people married 26+ years just walk away?........their children dropped out of school after they broke up...and we have offered their eldest refuge while he regroups (he knows bikes and the bike shop needs help just now)......we are not their only d-ville contacts, and we are certain that others will lend this fellow a hand in rebuilding his life......

cutting the cord.....

ok, so....i had a little incident this afternoon, and i lived to tell the tale.....i went big, as we say around here......and not only trimmed and weeded, and pruned....but i got out the long extension cords and the electric hedge trimmer, and prepared to do battle with our overgrown shrubs.....i got through the taxus and boxwoods by the front porch, and had moved to the boxwoods along the fence by the road.....when it happened.....a flash of sparks, a jolt, and then...nothing.....i had cut through the electric cord....gentle readers....i have been trimming hedge and shrubs for years and years with this appliance.....and have somehow managed to avoid this sort of semi-disaster until today.....probably scared me more than anything......as i was into my 5th hour of yard work, i declined the suggestion that i trudge up to grandmas to borrow another extension cord.....the remaining shrubs can just sit tight until i get up the nerve to finish the job.....

saturday

ok, so....i am determined to go big today....which in c-dub terminology means to either go for a large distance (as in running or biking), or to get a lot accomplished.....which is the route i am taking.....thus far i have made omelets and fried potatoes....must keep up my strength...i have planted all of the seedlings i have been tending from my flats that have languished on the back table waiting for this moment.....they are rather spindly...but if only part of them take off it is still a success...most have been eased into pots on the back deck...amongst other flowers or vegetables......i put some stringy sweet peas alongside my potted tomato plants.....might look kinda special at some point.....and so now i am heading back outside to deadhead rose bushes....and to trim back the volunteer shrubs that seem to burst forth every day.....and then maybe i'll take a shower and do some grocery shopping....i seem to shop twice as much with the extra mouth to feed.....which is just fine as i enjoy cooking for someone who complements each and every meal....i absolutely must make our rental reservation in the smokies for the (now) annual runner/walkers weekend .....we went to north carolina the year before last, and our rental cabin was idyllic...the ones available to us in this locale seem so baby blue and pink country with ruffles as to be almost unbearable.....there was one cabin with a bear motif.....a little too many bears for my taste......ah well...it is only for the two nights.....must make myself do this simple task.....

flowering tobacco

ok, so.....i stopped in at the lowes on my way home from lincoln county last evening.....just to see what plants they had in the back 'mark-down' section......and there was an entire trolley of perfectly lovely flowering tobacco plants (nicotiana alata) blooming in a lovely shade of pink for 99 cents each.....i also invested in a few black-eyed susans (rudbeckia hirta), some pink coneflowers (echinacea purpurea), and blue speedwell (veronica spicata)....i got up early this morning to water them again.....having already watered them when i planted them, and again when it was nearly dark.......i have placed these plants in amongst my new rose bushes.....and while i still see a few gaps....i could consider this bed 'done' if i so chose.....but i digress from the flowering tobacco.....i leaped at the chance to buy it, because i was quite certain that tobacco grows well around here........

board meeting

ok, so i survived my second board meeting, and managed to get our budget passed without much to-do.....this is a great relief, as the budget is a huge deal and this was my very first experience in the process.....i am so very relieved....

the times.....

ok, so the times, they are a changing.....this couple, aged 87 and 84...were legally married today in california.....who could not look upon this happy couple and be glad.....?

bloomsday

ok, so....it was not until rather late in my workday that it dawned on me that today is june 16....which means that it is bloomsday......the day in 1904 featured in james joyce's ulysses........there is still time to raise a glass to leopold, stephen and molly.....

rien ne dure comme la provisoire

ok, so.....my eldest quoted this sentiment this afternoon when the topic of my interim-ship came up...nothing lasts like the temproary...to make this quote in conversation i would have to write it on my hand...which does detract from the drama.....

cats....

ok, so i dreamed last night that i was on a cruise......and i had our cat with me, and i was trying to hold onto her so she wouldn't not go over board.....not a likely scenario but you never can be certain in dreams.....and this cruise ship was curiously narrow....with tables for 2 against the windows and only a body-width aisle for negotiating the length of the vessel.....and somehow managed to get off the boat with me and into a cafe, where again i was trying to keep her in my lap, and again she escaped.....cats have been in our family discussion these days, now that my eldest has found austrian accommodations that are inexpensive due to the cats: he will essentially house-sit for 2 cats....an older female and a younger male.....not a bad deal for a fellow who is comfortable with cats.....our cat stayed out all night last night, and had to jostle for food with the big yellow dog....she is quite at ease with the dog.....and i suspect she caterwauls for food in her dish knowing he will eat it....a symbiotic relationship of sorts......

a regular gertrude stein....

ok, so....my 24-year old birthday boy arrived home this morning, and his reply to my exuberant description of the art i bought last night was....so you're just a regular gertrude stein........what a great line......

art......

ok, so.....i have not updated the wall decorations in my house for.....25+ years.....what is there has always been there...no matter what wall one looks at...and so this evening was a freeing experience....i bought a piece from one of the artists in the shop.....part of a series of jazz related acrylics.....a woman playing piano in pink and green with a touch of mustard and the soul of the piece done in pen/ink......and in order to place it just so in my front room i will have to move something out.....or many somethings out.....and this could be a very good thing......i came close to buying another piece.....already framed in fall colors that would have looked lovely with a pastel piece my middle child did in high school....a remarkable work, so says his mamma......but it is his piece and i should not pairing it up like it will stay here.....he will want it to serve as the foundation of his own busy wall decoration at some point.....

bon anniversaire

ok, so....we have been married 27 years as of this day...the 13th of june.....periodically the day is on friday......and this day annually comes up either just before, during or just after the band festival......and occasionally a relative schedules a wedding around this time of year......as tonight is the gallery hop, and my spouse's business is hosting 3 artists.....i am packing a hamper of treats to take into town, and we at least share a picnic of sorts in the work area of the bike shop......yeah, well.....we've had more romantic celebrations...but then.....we did enjoy several lovely meals together in paris last fall......and plan on traveling to austria this fall........so we are not tied to mid-june for getaways......the rain is actually a nice reminder of our actual wedding day, which included not only rain but a tornado.....we c-dubs are quite resilient when it comes to making do with what we have got.....

prayer list

ok, so my youngest child got a call last night....from an elderly member of our church......and this sweet lady told me before i handed the phone over to my child that she wanted me to know that she had been praying hard for my daughter this week....and wanted to tell her so.......omg....literally......my daughter get kinda tearful after she hung up.....no idea what that was about, but......the lord does work in mysterious ways....

raining cats and dogs....

ok, so i was touched by this photo from iowa of a man saving himself and his 2 cats....i was offered another cat today at work...a woman walked in the hd with a box, placed it on the floor, and said to the clerks...i am just dropping this off...and she left a kitten in a box in our lobby.....gentle readers...i'd have taken that cat home in a heart-beat...but i have an aging parent across the street with an aging cat and an aging dog......who will at some point come over to live with me.....and so i left that kitten to someone else to take home.....

the violet window.....

ok so....with all of the flowers in bloom outside, i overlooked the brilliant show in the window we installed beside the fireplace.....this window provides morning light to a room darkened by the front porch, which essentially blocks light from the east....seems african violets love morning light.....and so the 2 pots of bright pink and purple violets are now at riot stage......wow.....too bad they are not fragrant.....that would be icing on the cake......

60's kids programming in cleveland, ohio

ok, so.....my aunt and uncle from the cleveland area emailed yet another forwarded email my way today......and i am so glad i opened it because this gem was included.......from left to right.....Franz the Toymaker, Woodrow the Woodsman, Barnaby, and Captain Penny.......i can recall watching them as i ate lunch after returning home from morning kindergarten.....in black and white.......it is quite likely that they were on the same 30 minute show, and each had a segment........gosh....but time flies

rain....

ok, so....we were treated to overnight rain showers.....and a cooler morning as an added bonus....so glad i took the time to finish mulching and to water down my planting beds....i appear to have primed the pump.....

mail and mulch

ok, so i drove by the lowes on my way home from work to buy mulch....as the roses i planted behind the b-ball hoop have never been mulched, and when i watered them by hand this morning (the hose does not reach) they were looking a bit weary with the heat......and so i bought 6 bags of dark mulch, as well as a few marked down gailardia and daisies......when i had unloaded those purchases, and fetched the mail/paper from the box on the road....i found that most of our mail was addressed to our across the street neighbor.....i had 2 choices...the first to walk to their box and slip the errant mail inside.....not the best option as their big picture window looks out on their box....and i would look potentially mischievous if i opted for that route..... and so i decided to march right up to their door and present them with their mail....the second good deed in 3 days....as my spouse called them on saturday to let them know that their water line had burst and that they were paying for water flowing across the street and into the neighbors drive....curious about the mail they claimed.....one piece was in the hand not extended.....to an address on the main road...and an unrecognizable name.......and my neighbor grabbed it and said....oh...this is the name that this guy always puts on my bills .....hmmmm.......fraley is the pseudonym, by the way just in case........ah well...and so i put down the mulch, and watered all of my deck and bedding flowers, and took a bath because i was filthy, and yet my spouse is not home.......to tell about our neighbor who could be doing business as someone else.....just too funny......

getting up early.....

ok, so.....my plans for the seep hoses has not come to fruition....as the hose is damaged and i am having to get up early to water my plantings before the sun gets too hot......i have no idea how to repair the breach in this hose.....i have no excuse for not learning.....i also have no excuse for failing to place the remaining hoses in the remaining beds before the lilies got too overgrown to do so.....i can say it had something to do with the fact that the water source should really be at the top of the yard, rather than the bottom.......eventually i will work out all of these little details....

finnegan's rainbow.....

ok, so...when asked by close kin just what epic book i intended to read this summer.....i said, with a straight face.....finnegan's rainbow....oh, no....you must be mistaken was the quick retort.....there is no such book....you must mean either finnegan's wake (joyce) or gravity's rainbow (pinchon).....i did mean both......as the twin set of unreadable novels are at the top of my to-do list.....but having peeked briefly under the covers of each.....i opted out.....i mention the peeking part purposefully.....my book-loving kin are greatly offended when i read their books, as i have the audacity to bend back pages, pencil in notes, and roll the front cover around to the back (we are talking with paperbacks only).....and these appear to grotesque misuses of books....ah well......i have chosen another top-of-the-list book for the warm weather months.....a portrait of the artist as a young man a joyce prequel to ulysses which i managed to finish reading last summer with the support of family and friends....i am excited to read portrait, not just because it is related to ulysses, but because it is the book that my u.k. library student-employee son requested to be donated to the library collection in his name upon his graduation....i found this a touching tradition at the time i read through the booklet that listed all of the many donated tribute volumes......and believe that the book chosen by my eldest may give me a glimpse, if fleeting, into the man he has become since leaving home.....

goodnight bush

ok, so....this parody of the children's book can be purchased at amazon.....

birds and bees

ok, so.....i sat on my waterfall patio reading a book this evening.....and was amused that my cat sidled down my way....from her perch under the birdfeeder.....she tried to sit on my lap....and failing at that....she settled herself on the next chair to ponder her prey from afar.....i was pleased to catch a few glimpses of the oriole in the high branches......i had intended to sit in the red Adirondack's chairs...but the bees have descended on the fallen mulberries.....i am rereading the snow leopard by Peter Matthiessen...i had forgotten how many birds and plants he recorded in this diary of a long and arduous trek.....no orioles....but species i will never chance to see.....unless i get it in my craw to hike from Kathmandu to the crystal monastery.......you never know.....

water, water everywhere.....

ok, so we got up early and rove to h-burg....my spouse to run the beef 'stampede', and the youngest and i to hand out water to runners at the halfway-point as well as the finish line.....this departmental collaboration has been plagued with uncertainty, as my colleagues have never done a race let alone volunteered......and so there was wringing of hands over what we would wear (race volunteer shirts, whether or not we would put up tents (no- as the event isn't very long, it is at 8 am, and there is no place to anchor a tent)and whether or not we should come earlier than 7:30 to set up (what set-up?)....as i was pulling out of the drive this morning i noticed that there was water leaking out of my neighbors yard across the road and into my neighbors yard....which meant a there was a water-line problem.....sure enough- when i got home 10-ish after errands fixing to take a shower...there was not water to be had while the water company was digging up the neighbor's yard in search of the breach.....thankfully i still had a bit of bottled water in my car to tide me over.....

wisdom

ok, so.....one of my gossip blogs directed me to j.k.rowling's commencement address at harvard........i took the time to listen to her 18 minute address......wow.....there is more to this woman than i thought.....

the garden of eden.....

ok, so......i heard from my favorite gardener yesterday.....he who has the privilege of working as an intern in some of the world's most famous garden beds for the next month......and he told me that they are busy pulling out spent pansies, forget-me-nots, and money plant, and putting in several varieties of salvia, cosmos, cleome, and liriope....along with a team of gardeners.....heavy sigh......to have a team of gardeners, the right soil conditions, relatively flat space, and the funds to replace spent flowers in such a manner......in france, no less.....my trellis rose is almost spent......and i will have to wait patiently to see if it condescends to rebloom in the fall with a small flush of repeat blossoms.....sometimes it does, but mostly it doesn't.....same with the cherry-colored robin hood musk roses at the corners of the house......should rebloom but doesn't under drought conditions.....but i speak only of roses......by the time our annual bike/run rolls around august most of our perennials are spent, and the nurseries carry few replacement flowers to perk things up......short of mums.....these are minor concerns when compared to the woes of the world...and i shall not worry about them on this lovely day......

so very tired....

ok, so i spent yesterday with a budget consultant, trying to get our budget worked through.....at 6:00 i threw in the towel....as we were not done and i was glazed over with fatigue and therefore unfit to make financial choices.....budgeting is much more complicated than i imagined.....but we will get through this, and the required board approval...and move on to other things less frustrating very soon.....

on to november

ok, so.....it is a relief that the nomination is clinched, and the democrats can move on to unifying themes and away from all of this divisive rhetoric.....this primary season went on for far too long.....hilary needs to take this defeat graciously and move on as well......her day will come.....

a candidate to look up to?

ok, so as i head to bed cnn is projecting that obama has the votes to clinch the nomination.......i took a moment to reread caroline kennedy's endorsement of obama from the nytimes awhile back......and her prose was every bit as memorable as i recalled.......i feel great hope and energy these days......

6-pack

ok, so this being the last first-monday of the fiscal year.......i moderated my last diabetes support group in a distant county......my county and this neighboring county are slowly untangling...and the new director felt, rightly, that if i got the permanent director's job in my county then i wouldn't have the time nor inclination to do this group......and we had a roomful at this transitional meeting......more folks than have ever come out for diabetes information showed up to let this new fellow know just how much they value this group.....and most folks made a point of thanking me for the 3 years i traveled there on their behalf......which was very nice....but the sweetest part came as i was pulling out of the lot...and an elderly gentleman with a cane came my way.....and raised one finger to tell me to not only stop, but to open my window.....and he handed me a 6-pack of water with a note attached.....and said that he hated to see me go without a little gift......gentle readers......i am seriously considering a 6-pack of water shrine to this gesture of friendship/appreciation.......

dissimilar scents.....

ok, so.....now that rose season has reached its peak....and is waning...i have started to bring a few inside so i can revel in the glory of the contained aroma...i generally wait a bit before cutting, as i really enjoy seeing the full effect of every possible bloom as a tour-de-force....and as i type i am trying to describe the variations on the theme of rose.....as the individual varieties differ so greatly as to scent.....the trellis rose city of york leans toward the lemon.....it is a creamy, clean smell......while my grandpa's pink damask rose belladonna smells like classic rose scented soap....intensely rose......the tea rose by the basement door auguste renoir is a bright scent that bears no resemblance to tea, while the rambler paul transom that blooms 20+ foot along the back fence is vaguely citrus and sweet yet still rosy.......this morning i was met with a mixture of all the rose scents- a dazzling medley that i shall miss as the summer wears on....we shall still have a few roses.....the cherry clusters of the robin hood musk roses that edge the house on 3 sides will rebloom.....as will ginny and ballerina....the musk roses that are on the left fence.....and the knockout roses....though they hardly seem to count as they have no scent at all.....they simply rebloom as advertised.....auguste renoir will rebloom as will st cecilia.....stanwell perpetual is supposed to rebloom....but has yet to manage this feat.....my new roses...the 7 bushes i bought because they will rebloom are still growing and filling out....they are english roses bred to be full and disease resistant....and will hopefully bring a renewal of the spring rose frenzy in the late summer......ah, i just love my rose garden......

the dead tree

ok, so...at lunch today...out on the side deck.......my mother commented on how we really need to cut down the dead tree that is just beyond the stone wall that may or may not hold up the back of our property.......we have this discussion periodically......on why we leave the dead tree......it is a clear destination for birds flying across the creek....and therefore we have an unobstructed view of a variety of birds...large and small.....and...given that the tree is hanging on to the side of a cliff....we see no reason to risk life or limb to attempt to cut it down......as i mentioned.....we have this discussion on a regular basis...which means either that my mother forgets why, or simply disagrees and revisits the removal to see if we can remember why it remains.....

moving (back) in

ok, so one of my children moved back home this day....in preparation for an extended time traveling and living and teaching abroad.....and i must give this child major credit....for downsizing prior to this transition......unlike my mother who moved from ohio without bothering to downsize....and is still struggling with throwing away committee minutes from clubs she can no longer recall because there is a cute saying/quotation/picture on the piece of paper.....in order to make room i went through my aging collection of tablecloths that hung in the spare-room closet....and jettisoned those that i cannot remember ever liking.....hows that for memories?!...change can be good.....

deleted posts.....

ok, so.....there was a post here for a few hours...one that has been deleted....ironically.....i actually forgot to include the ok,so part.......suffice ti to say that i was upset......but i am feeling much more optimistic now.....having handled the curve-ball with speed and precision.....it is now out of the park....so to speak......

a rose by any other name....

ok, so.....the roses i moved into my new bed are blooming.....and i am embarrassed to admit that i know few of the names......i know by name all of the roses planted prior to say.....the mid-1990's, and the roses planted in the past 2 years.....which still have tags attached....it is the middling roses that are nameless.....i can still recall the exact circumstances which set the stage for such name-forgetfulness.....we were beginning to have our youngest child over for visitations....and the weekend after we had brought back a large sampling of young rose bushes from my brother-in-law the rosarian......our child-to-be presented me with a bouquet of name tags....all just-plucked from the roses in question....omg.......it was all i could do not to raise my voice let alone disclose that this was no sweet gift.....and so.....i have about 12 lovely but nameless roses....i sit on the front porch each evening with eh big rose book, trying to identify them with the pictures and descriptives....but as most of the roses i can name are not int his book.....i am not surprised that i have come up empty on this endeavor......not to worry......i enjoy these mystery roses just the same....

friday.......

ok, so......that 5 letter word that means so much......too bad i cannot stay home and enjoy my friday.......work seems to get in the way of my good time.....but for a few moments i will go out and take in the fresh mixtures of morning and roses and hopefully gain enough resolve to get myself dressed and in the car.....

belated memorial day blog

ok, so....seems my paternal kin asked my family for a picture of my dad, to be shown along side his 3 grown brothers, as well as my brother and my cousin who also served...in a display in the little country church next door to the house my grandmother moved to after she left the family farm/homestead......i have never seen this picture before...taken in 1947....about the time he was in japan.....i do have a lacquer box he brought back from japan, as well as a silk scarf made from a contraband parachute.....and 2 sets of sake cups.......but this photo trumps my collection of memorabilia.....for my own record....my dad lost his eldest brother to the spanish flu epidemic in 1918, and his youngest brother to a brain aneurysm in the 40's......

safe and sound

ok, so i got the confirmation email this morning...that my boy was safe and sound in paris.....mammas always want confirmation.....

teary-eyed....

ok, so.....i spent an emotional day planning for, and then meeting with folks i am required to meet with in this interim world i now inhabit.....and much as i believe i handled it all well....there still looms the possibility that someone else will be hired to do this job......and as i pushed my cart morosely through the kroger..... i was abruptly brought back to the real world by a woman who blurted.....i know you don't recognize me ...i have lost 50 pounds since i came to see you.....my blood sugars are almost normal.....i made sure the doctor knew who had helped me do this...... gentle readers.....i nearly burst into tears.....mostly because i cannot seem to help myself lose half that amount of weight.....but also because i needed this little interjection of good tidings........to soften whatever bad vibes come from my board members who have strung me along for nearly 4 months with no hope of a future......i did buy a lottery ticket....at the kroger...just in case the lord has other plans for me......

happy trails

ok, so my middle child flies back to france for an internship ......he has been home so few days since he started college that we have become used to his comings and goings....and are satisfied with the precious time we have to spend with him.....wishing him traveler's mercies on this day.....

work

ok, so...i must rally my weary bones.....get dressed and go back to work this morning....i am just too tired to contemplate that notion at 7:07 am....might think differently in 10 or so minutes...but not right now....

rain, rain.....

ok, so....i had invited a good friend out to see the roses this afternoon...she has never noticed that i had roses when she was here before......and as fate would have it....the rain was pouring down when she arrived.....so we got out umbrellas to look at my roses....and then sat back on the front porch in the red rockers to drink champagne and talk about roses.....among other things.....i have been to paris with this person......which makes her dear to my heart......and though saw no roses blooming when we were visiting in january a few years back....we were able to pick out places where roses would have been lovely......a good way to end my 5 day vacation....champagne and rain.......i'll think on that when i drag myself out of the bed tomorrow at 6:30.....

there and back again.....

ok, so.....we drove to cincinnati and back today...to attend a family gathering.....we missed the actual baby shower.....that was scheduled during the same time slot as our church service......go figure.....but we were able to get there in time to visit a while before dinner.....i had not been int he door for 2 minutes when my younger sister-in-law suggested we make a run to trader joe's.....the cincinnati location being 2 minutes down the road.....i had quite forgotten that the sister-in-law who hosted the event is notorious for barebones entertaining.....which means if we want enough to eat we had better run out and buy a few things to fill out the menu.....and so three of us purchased cheese-platter fixings, some lovely white bean hummus to go with rye bread, and some fresh salsa with organic chips.....i had never been to any trader joe's.....so it was an unexpected pleasure.....and i did indulge in some pesto filled tortellinis, 2 kinds of figs for my spouse, and some shelf-stable vegetarian indian food for my middle child.....and a couple of random bottles of inexpensive wine.....i had a glass or two of the gewurztraminer (not bad for $4.99) and saved the fume blanc for another day.....such an oddity to shop for wine on a sunday......but i digress from the gathering.....lots of babies and pregnant nieces and cars with osu window decals.....

sunday....

ok, so... sunday is the day when i intend to sleep in....but i can never seem to sleep past 7:30 or so.....i did manage to water my flowerbeds without interruption from missionaries.....we are driving to cincinnati after church for a family gathering.....several of my spouse's siblings will be there..... i would prefer to stay home and take my sunday-after church nap.....but one does these trips for one's spouse....and i still have monday off for whatever leisure activities remain on my to-do list....

overcoming death (and destruction)

ok, so....as i was strolling in my garden this morning, clutching my coffee and making my mental list of chores for the day.....a unfamiliar car pulled in the driveway......we get very little traffic on our circle, let alone actual random visitors that i was a bit stunned.....especially given that i was wearing my typical saturday morning garb: pajama bottoms, a tshirt and a fleece vest......a woman got out of the backseat, in a sunday dress clutching her purse....she introduced herself, and explained that they were going out to meet their neighbors, and she wanted to ask me a question....was i discouraged by all of the death and destruction i see lately?.......gentle readers......as a sunday school teacher i knew where she was going with this conversation, and i made the split second decision that i wasn't going there.......at least not yet......i replied with a broad smile that i saw only promise and reason for hope, now that barak obama is about to get the nomination and bring us all together......the woman replied that even barak obama cannot save us from death and destruction....only a personal relationship with jesus christ.......i countered with my belief that barak obama does have a personal relationship with jesus christ and i feel very hopeful and inspired to a better future for us all.....and then she asked me if i didn't think that the earthquake and the cyclone and the death and destruction was not a sign that too many people have turned away from god.....and i pointed to my yard...to the trellis rose with it's 1000 creamy blooms, and to the beds beyond.....to the blur of pinks and reds and white....and asked this woman how i could believe that god did not still wish us all well, having such a glorious spring morning to behold.......i did use the word behold.....i added that special touch of biblical reference.....we were at that moment in the direct path of the trellis rose's lemony aroma.....it is quite intoxicating, by the way....and i see the addition of fragrance to my argument as my own personal sign that there is a god...but i digress......i knew that the only way this woman and her friends would leave was by admitting that we are sunday-school attending church-goers.....i fully understand that these folks look around and see nothing but pain and suffering, and they feel that if we all believed the way they do that we would all be better off.....it is this single-belief system that many christians cling to.....there are as many references to god loving us all in the bible.....which implies tolerance to me.......but enough of this.....the day is just too lovely to spend arguing salvation.......

vultures.....

ok, so....we have witnessed an alarming visitation of turkey vultures in our neighborhood this spring.... as many as 8 at a time can be seen perched on the dead tree across the creek...or in a well-branched tree at the end of the circle on the main road....they circle above, and sometimes get as close as the tree by the deck....i was reading middlesex this afternoon, sipping ice water...when one briefly perched not 20 feet from me...vultures are decidedly ugly birds......one doesn't quite appreciate just how so until one is that close.....no idea why they have remained..i do check on the cat's whereabouts just in case when they come too close to the house.......at one point we wondered if they were migrating north to such buzzard towns as hinckley, ohio....which celebrates their return every year......bur for now our local flock is staying put...

marriage in california....

ok, so i had an email in my box this morning from extended family asking me to sign a petition against the california's supreme court's ruling on marriage.....and i was amused that these emailing kin know so little about me that they would presume i would sign such a petition......it is absolutely none of my business who marries who(?) and long as they are faithful to their vows.....which further amused me to watch john mccain on ellen talking about gay marriage.....as if he is the expert on hetero marriage.....he who has been married two times..his wikipedia bio alludes to his relationship with wife #2 as preceding the divorce from wife #1........ ellen asked him if he would walk her down the aisle.....i do not believe that mccain answered her question.....

constance spry

ok, so.....the english rose constance spry is now beginning to bloom......not yet peak, but enough of a show that i was delighted by the changes in the show even since yesterday evening......this rose was named after a real person...seems constance was the martha of her day....famed for her flower arrangements in royal circles....i am trying to rally my weary bones enough to go back out to weed.....on this my second off-day....in the back of my mind is the notion that i could weed another day.....but as we have plans for sunday and monday...that only leaves saturday.....i have already read the paper on the deck.....drank a few cups of coffee....read my favorite morning cyber-sites.....and now i really should do something constructive....speaking of which...i finally figured out why i could not get google-reader to subscribe to my blog...for re-reading it at work purposes.....i simply had not allowed it to be a feed...now that i have changed that pulldown box on my settings....i am good to go.....i can refresh my memory of what i blogged at work without the reading showing up on the web-trail that is occasionally monitored by the state folks....but enough about work...i am on vacation....

clarification

ok, so...i am collecting an ensemble of dressy clothes, should ever i get the opportunity to interview for the job i have been doing nearly 4 months....if ever the chance comes up...i will have something special to wear.....

contagions...

ok, so.....my middle child and i made the short round of goodwills today, with a lunch at j-beth midway for good measure......lots of great buys....including a moss green linen dress that matches my beads from last week.....and a pair of black kitten=heeled slingbacks that look like they were barely worn.....it was not until the beaumont plaza store that we saw the girl with a visibly contagious viral disease.....could have been measles...could have been chicken pox...but this child was clearly unimmunized against what we used to call a childhood disease and was now paying the price......she looked no more than 7 or 8....hispanic...which only partially explains the lack of immunization....now that school systems require certain milestone shots at the beginning of school and again in the 6th grade.....objector-parents simply home-school.....which leaves their children vulnerable.....and though i can say that having the chicken pox, the measles and the mumps when i was young did not scar me for life.....those children with compromised immunity sometimes do not recover from these infections.....having just read the wikipedia version of measles...i learned that measles is actually a respiratory virus that affects the lungs more so than the skin......who knew?.....i felt sad for the parents, who either do not know that this is a contagious disease, or have no options...given that many clinics will not treat non-residents......we are already seeing a resurgence of tuberculosis.....another contagious disease most likely to infect the underfed/underimmunized/vulnerable population .....driving these folks underground is not the answer....

eleanor of aquitaine

ok, so....we have a genealogical trail, prepared by our semi-resident genealogy buff, that traces my known ancestor that came to ohio in the early 1800's through the Shenandoah valley from maryland.....solomon c......back in time through eleanor of aquitaine to charlemagne.......our expert had explained all this to us several years ago, but it was not until he retraced these steps to prove his own scottish ancestry for scholarship purposes that i was moved to take a fresh look at these kinfolk......eleanor of aquitaine is forever frozen in time as portrayed by katherine hepburn in a lion in winter......and though i have taken the time to read her wikipedia installment.....i prefer katherine's image of a strong, witty, and wily soul......had i needed to prove scottish ancestry i would have taken a different tactic....through my grandmother c's line rather than my grandfather's.....on occassion, when asked to tell me about her family, she mentioned that she had a grandmother who came to america as a slavegirl from glasgow.....she must have meant an indentured servant....and that her family had ties to aristocracy......that is not quite the word my grandmother would have used.....and being a humble woman she would only have mentioned such a detail if it were not matter-of-fact.....i so appreciate the hard of work put into this family tree by a child who leaves no stone unturned in finding out essential details......

a lovely evening....

ok, so....for my spouse's birthday we (collectively) decided that mere goods and wares were not enough...so we opted for a family bike ride....and a lovelier evening could not be found......crisp, clear.....windless......we rode out past burgin and turned around at the duck pond on north 1st street....where we spotted a mamma duck and her hatchlings following her along the bank.....so very precious......and when we returned we feasted on an enchilada casserole made with TVP, and spanish rice, and corn on the cob.....and birthday cake.......life is good....

any day.......

ok, so....my rose arbor will burst forth any day into 1000 lovely specimens of city of york...there are a few buds that have come out completely, but most are in that transition phase where you could look away for a moment, only to turn back and see each bud fully bloomed...the aroma has undertones of lemon......i just love this time of year.....

8 babies in 2 days....

ok, so.....npr brings me to tears more often than not...but the piece that ran as i was driving to l-ville to pick up my middle child was extraordinary.....one of the non-melissa block china commentators was being interviewed by melissa.....and she asked him about the stories he had come across in this horrendous week....and he said that his personal story of the week was about a police woman he came across who was breastfeeding a baby.....and when he spoke to her about the baby it turned out that this was not only NOT her baby, but that her baby was at home...and that she had fed 8 babies not her own over the past 2 days....in her words....a hungry baby is a hungry baby.....i was reminded tragically about a preppy woman somewhere i also heard about on npr.......who had left her baby with a friend, and was so horrified to discover that this woman had breastfed her hungry baby when she was late in returning that she sued her friend in court...and won.....only in america would we sue someone who was generous enough to feed our hungry babies....and yet there is a wondrous woman somewhere in southwestern china who would feed all the hungry babies.....

full house.....

ok, so we will be five at supper this evening....six when you count grand-ma......i drive to l-ville this afternoon to fetch the middle child fresh from finishing up a 10-page paper and lugging his non-storage stuff to the airport via the train. .....his visit will be brief, as he heads back to france....and this internship-driven trip will be so short that even i have made no plans for a visit to coincide.....there will some overlap in the summer when both boys will be home again.....just before the eldest flies to berlin to start his grand tour.....his taste of the greater continent before he settles into a school year teaching english in austria.....i am making mental plans to visit at least once with my spouse and once with my daughter.....and maybe sending the middle child for the holidays.....we shall see......so many comings and goings.......isn't this what we raise our children up to do....to leave home only to visit then and again?......but for tonight, i will savor the full membership of our c-dub clan.......

roses

ok, so.......i have 24 buds on my stanwell perpetual bush...a new record for a rose that has traditionally only had a handful of blossoms....moving the bush from the side of the deck was a big help...as it gets lots more sun and has much better soil conditions now.....it is a precious rose.....

unnatural color.....

ok, so.....i stopped into tuesday morning on my way home from my (last) frankfort training.....and lucked into a precious necklace...greenish taupe beads that may or may not be stone....maybe heavy glass..cannot tell from the color whether this is real or pretend.....with matching earrings.....marked in european pricing- both euros and pounds.....the necklace was 39 euros and the earrings 29 euros....and i bought each for $7.99....you do the math.......gentle readers.....i do not, as a rule, covet jewelry...i have my pearls, and i have my amber necklace....and a faux gold chain necklace i bought for $1 at a goodwill......and if those pieces don't do justice to the outfit then i don't wear jewelry.....my youngest is feeding cattle and horses on a friend's farm this weekend.....and so i dutifully drove her over there last evening.....i enjoy these occasions because i get to look for eggs...the chicken section of their barn reminds me so of my dad's mother.....the smell and general look of chickens roosting on nesting boxes.....i ended up finding 4 eggs....3 in far-flung corners of the barn where hay had spilled....and so this morning, before we drive back over there i treated myself to a small pan of fried potatoes and a fresh scrambled egg.....for those who are not so lucky as to have day-old eggs....the yolks are unnaturally yellow.....a version of neon....quite disturbing to the senses at this hour of the day.... except that the yellow IS natural for really fresh eggs.....and for the next few days i will enjoy every bite of my vivid scramblers.....

bookclub

ok, so.....i was disappointed that my bookclub was forced indoors by rain.....days of rain....the deck table was saturated....and so we managed to fit all 15 of us around my grandmother's table with its five leaves.....my eldest led a spirited discussion of slaughterhouse-five.....a great evening with good friends.....the event was a bit more difficult that in past years in that i have driven to frankfort for trainings most days this week....and did not arrive home the night before until 8:00 pm.....which pushed back food prep quite a bit.....i have always offered a thematic meal to go along with the book when it is my bookclub turn.....sadly...this book did not lend itself to a menu....so i made 4 salads and offered a nice selection of desserts.....and so it goes....until my next turn...when the rain will hopefully pass us by for just that one night....

no more than 15 feet away....

ok, so...the nytimes recently ran this article about 2 practicing Buddhists who live in a 22-foot wide yurt in arizona..... who have not only promised to keep their relationship celibate, but also that the couple would remain no more than 15 foot apart day and night.....the 15-foot space limit is what would eventually drive me crazy.......

babies

ok, so i dreamed last night that i was somewhere on the c. farm in mid-ohio......and trying to deal with a baby that had just been born......not clear if it was my own.......it was in a crib in the back upstairs bed-room at the farmhouse.....no actual memories of my babies every being in that house.....as grandma had already moved to town and then to a nursing home years before i had babies......andrew made his debut at grandma's funeral when he was 2 weeks old....but there was a baby......a hungry baby.......go figure.....

only children.....

ok, so......i have to avert my eyes when i see photos of the mothers watching over their dead, shrouded....and only children......one forgets that these women are given one single shot at motherhood....and there are no more little ones waiting at home to soften the devastation.........

the senator from ky....

ok, so .........Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, in a likely preview of the Republican line of attack in the general election, said Democratic leaders and Mr. Obama "get up every morning with three things on their minds: more taxes, more regulation and more litigation."

"It's pretty clear to me that the Democratic agenda is to turn us into France," the Kentucky Republican told The Washington Times in an unusually blunt interview at his office in the Capitol. "Americans may want change, but the question is, what kind of change?"

the dems want to turn us into france?........worse could happen.....

logistics....

ok so....yesterday at our mother's day luncheon.....my eldest sat down, and put his arm around my shoulders and whispered the words that a mother longs to hear......'as my gift to you, i'll let you plan my 3 week grand tour....'...gentle readers....i live to plan trips.....and before the day was done i had already figured out that he was better off flying into berlin, and working his way down through the required sites of dresden, munich, vienna, venice, florence/sienna, rome before heading north to paris through milan.....a railpass limited to 4 countries and 8 legs was cheaper than most......and 4 overnight trains maximizes travel time and saves on hostel fees......so now comes the big question....do i hook him onto to his brother's end of june/chunnel to london from paris trip......or take the less risky choice of flying him back from paris as his required itinerary dictates......i use these inflexible terms because the trip he has won has multiple stipulations to which even the widow of the donor still holds firm.....despite acknowledging that the gift does not cover the reasonable cost of a 21 day grand tour.....ah well.....that is what meanparents are for......to fill in those gaps left by life's uncertainties.....

rain, rain.....

ok, so.....the wind and rain that overshadowed this day have yet to let up....and i am beginning to be concerned that my outdoor bookclub may have to be my inside bookclub.....and this cannot be....as we read slaughter-house five....and in keeping with the plot line we must sit out in the yard (the deck counts) and sip champagne while we wait for the spaceship.....

s.d.s.

ok, so...when asked about the tribute my loving family could offer up on mother's day.......i had an immediate answer...not tawdry things like breakfast in bed....or diamond-chip jewelry......but something much more useful....a replacement s.d.s........those of us who grew up in the 60's and 70's might think this to be a radical group...but i refer to....a solar drying system....aka: clothesline....we used to have one that pulled out from the side of the house to a pole that could be set into a hole by miss lulu's cabin door.....but after we added the second floor to the house, and resided with cedar.....we switched to an actual dryer and nobody can quite recall what happened to the clothesline.......the actual square-footage where we used to air-dry clothes is now....roses and perennials.....so we are looking invest in a single post that holds 5 sides of upright clothesline space......a tower of drying power......and i am so very pleased to be able to air-dry towels and other heavy items that take lots of time in the electric dryer.......30 years ago i saw this as work...now i see this as progress......

the other side.....

ok, so....every year there comes the time when the last of the gardening chores require a trip to the other side.....the other side of the fence....the other side of the hedge...the other side of the deck.....and given the these design elements are in place as a shield to the precipice beyond......the untamed portion of our property lies just beyond....and it is only when the undergrowth gets in the way of my view or appears to be choking my plantings that i must arm myself with the heavy-duty shearers....by the time i get around to other side, the honeysuckle has become thicker than ones thumb, and small trees have sprung up in the middle of the American Pillar rose that spreads around the corner of my deck......and all nature of shrubs are peaking through my boxwood hedge............i had a little mishap this year, in that when i stepped between the boxwood and the stone terrace where Shailer's Pink Provence rose is in full bloom beside the base of the deck.....there was no there...there....only a tangle of vines, and i thudded backwards on the stone ledge.....which was better than careening forward and over into the abyss.......now that i have tied up all the wayward limbs, and trimmed back ivy from the brickwalks, and cut back the hedge behind the garage, i am due a hot bath followed by a nice little nap to recover from all of this hard work......yeah, i have big clay pots to fill with either annuals or tomatoes.....but they can wait.....

youth minister.....

ok so.....i have blogged already about the folks who blew off my final, and/or my wellness project......one of my students actually showed up to take the final, but promised he'd email his project by lunchtime today.....yeah, right......sad that one cannot take the word of a fellow who described himself as a christian youth minister, and who missed 2 classes while he was on a mission trip to central america.....so much for honesty......

calling all dogs....

ok, so yesterday at my thursday county, my workmate nurses entertained themselves by calling home on their cellphones...and talking to their dogs on the answering machines......hmmm.....one could not hear the pooches from our end...one could only imagine those pets howling giddily....their names 2 out of 3 that i can recall are...eddie...and killer....both very small terriers.....i am trying so very hard to remember the name of dog number 3...also a very small terrier.....hard to forget names when one keeps a part-time yellow lab named yellow/butter than can barely get up to come in or go out......poor thing.....

writers almanac

ok, so.....on my way home from my last class of the semester i was cheered up somewhat by garrison and his writer's almanac.....i needed cheering up because 2 students not only blew off the final, but also blew off the 4-page wellness project.....and i know that i must grade them according to undone work, and not to my suppositions about mitigating circumstances for non-traditional students.....neither called, emailed, nothing.....but i digress from garrison....whose soothing voice can smooth over the roughest of days......i especially liked this portion of his broadcast.....It's the birthday of novelist and critic Edmund Wilson, born in Red Bank, New Jersey (1895), the son of an attorney who succumbed to mental illness and a woman who went deaf shortly thereafter. He went to Princeton and then worked for The New York Evening Sun, Vanity Fair, The New Republic, and The New Yorker. Wilson wrote all sorts of opinions about major writers of his day. He was an early appreciator of Hemingway, and he said in 1922 that "F. Scott Fitzgerald has been left with a jewel which he doesn't know quite what to do with." He wrote that Yeats, Proust, and Joyce "break down the walls of the present and wake us to the hope and exaltation of the untried, unsuspected possibilities of human thought and art."

He said that "Marxism is the opium of the intellectuals" and that "No two persons ever read the same book."

no two people ever read the same book.....true words.....as i look forward to bookclub.....and i ponder whether to drag out the white twinkle lights to string through the oak tree above the deck....so that we can imagine ourselves as billy pilgrim, drinking flat champagne in his yard while waiting for the spaceship......there will be those who didn't recall that part of the narrative.... as well as those who will remember the silver-painted army boots and think that billy wore them while waiting for the spaceship.....and i will become unable to try on goodwill coats without feeling for 2 carat diamonds in the lining......just in case.....

thursday.....

ok, so....my class ends this evening....and i have 3 folks who have yet to turn in their 4-page papers....and who have not attended class since the papers were due......i have no plans to sit and wait til 8:30 for them to show up to take the final....hopefully everybody will turn out to take the test, and i will be home by 6:30.......the rain is to continue through tomorrow.....i am involved in a major activity tomorrow for all 4th graders in my work county....an outdoor event that will be canceled if it rains.....i have plenty i can do with my work time should the rain come.......but sadly, if it rains, i cannot get caught up on my pre-book club home projects...like repainting lawn furniture......speaking of bookclub.....my menu was decided yesterday at the krogers by virtue of the manager's specials.....packages of fresh whole wheat raviolis were marked down to $1.75....and marinated fresh turkey loins that appeared to weigh 1 pound each were $1.98 after the clerk took off the $100 off coupon that was on each one....wow......go we are having grilled turkey loin and pasta salad......sounds like a plan to me.....now all i need is the champagne.....in slaughterhouse-five billy pilgrim sits in his yard after his daughter's wedding, drinking champagne and waiting for the spaceship.......

1st wednesday....

ok, so...i was off this morning taking back time worked in anderson county, as my diabetes support group meets the 1st monday of every month....and i was off this afternoon taking back time worked last night attending a meeting....and i did work for 2 hours in between.....attending yet another meeting.....i stopped at the kroger on my way home.....at 2:30 pm, and was stunned to find a throng of shoppers.....halting one's way in every aisle.....ogling the produce, thumping the meat.....and when i had finally made my way out to the parking lot, i chanced upon a nurse i used to know way back when....she she was startled that i did not know why the store was crowded.....seems the first wednesday is senior citizens day, and all purchases are 10% off.....who knew.....one of the first times i was a bit sad not to be over the age of 65.....

yesterday

ok, so as i was driving home from a meeting that ended at 7 i was delighted to hear garrision keillor and his writer's almanac......i meant to go straight home and blog this, but being hungry, i opted to cook supper instead....and being old and forgetful, the notion passed....so here it is today...the part i wanted to remember.....On this day in 1862, Henry David Thoreau died of tuberculosis. He was 44. His aunt asked him if he was at peace with God. Thoreau said, "I was not aware that we had quarreled." The last clear thing he said was, "Now comes good sailing," and then two words: "moose" and "Indian."...i liked that response- when asked if he was at peace with god he responded...i did not know we had quarreled.....i hope i am that witty when my time comes.....

poppies....

ok, so......i knew that at least one poppy would be in bloom when i arrived home at 8:30 from anderson county...because several yards along my route had a full cadre of poppies abloom.....mine has just the one so far...but that single burst of orange stands out like.....an explosion of contrast color amid the sea of greenish hues.....i count at least a dozen potential blooms....on a par with the iris i have counted....yeah....a more obsessive gardener would have depleted the unopened bag of perennial fertilizer on the porch by tossing a little bit here and a little bit there....i did apply the rose food....which explains their (expected) banner year but i digress from the poppies...which remind me so of the wizard of oz.....and the poppy field......yeah...those were not real poppies....my emotional connections require no stake in reality....and this is a theme that will fall dormant until poppy season next year.....i will enjoy every minute of it...........

night shift

ok, so in my dreams i had sprayed some sort of cleaning product, and was on my knees scrubbing down grimy baseboards....no idea what event had caused the filth, let alone my urge to tidy up......and as it goes with so many dreams...there was mayhem all about.....some sort of baby kept crawling off of the bed and i was reminded that i was supposed to taking care of this baby....except that it was not my baby and i kept trying to figure out why it was in this room with me and my dirty baseboards.....and i woke up this morning with my joints stiff and achy and my neck sore from my right ear down- the joint pain must be from the extra night's worth of work..... no accounting for why my neck and ear hurts......

may 4, 1970

ok so....it has been 38 years since the shooting at kent state, when national guard shot down viet nam war protesters...this music video is from crooks and liars....crosby stills and nash's ohio is always appropriate for days such as these....

one down

ok, so.....we got up early and drove to lexington for a reception honoring the gaines center fellows on the day of their graduation.....and it was a lovely affair......but then any event that features a hot breakfast buffet with hash brown potatoes and bacon is right up there regardless of the reason to get together in the first place.....there were only 2 that came with actual robes....i suspect that most had opted to skip out on the peacemeal graduation rituals...the institution in question being too large to graduate in one place at one time....yeah...they do have a football stadium, but then one risks rain.....and so graduation is done at the basketball arena...in shifts...starting at 8 am and going on in the afternoon and early evening.....we had lovely chats with his friends, including those he intends to visit in nyc, and london....the fellow who will spend the summer in a monastery near hong kong had already left town.....our gathering ended around 11:00 am.....and though there was another event at 4 this afternoon, we opted to head on home and leave our eldest child to adjust to life after college.....

horror

ok, so....we watched in horror as the commentators announced that 8belles had been put down just after finishing second in the derby...both front ankles broken....and in horse terms...that means death...not casts and time off....so sad an end to an animal that gave her all......

nostalgia

ok, so this is a reprint of my mother’s day marathon, circa May 9, 1999……….as printed in the Danville Advocate Messenger, along with pictures……yeah- mamma is feeling nostalgic......

Subtitle: kathy C-dub spends her Mother’s Day finishing Cincinnati’s first Flying Pig Marathon


What kind of idiot spends a perfectly lovely Mother’s Day on a 26.2 mile walking/running tour of Cincinnati?

The answer: 6100 well-meaning idiots, including me, made the trip to Cincinnati for the Flying Pig Marathon Sunday.

Runners who opt for the ultimate challenge do so for reasons that seem perfectly reasonable to the runner and perfectly insane to everybody else. For a non-runner like myself, the decision to enter this race was met with utter shock and dismay.

‘Kathy, how far have you run before this? Only 3 miles?’ they would say as they silently questioned my sanity. “I thought you didn’t run.”

That much is true. I prefer walking to running, but that does not exclude me from completing a 26-mile event. I often walk 6-7 miles at a sub-15 minute pace on my treadmill and on weekends I have been known to load and unload rocks in the building of walks and walls for longer than the 7 hours allotted for completion of the Cincinnati event. I have the stamina and the resolve to finish what I have started when it comes to grueling home gardening projects. Why can’t I transfer these attributes to a 26 mile tour of Cincinnati. I may not be a classic runner, but I am certainly an athlete in search of her event.

Race Day 7:00 am Fountain Square. I am, overwhelmed. I try to remember all the reasons why I am here. I had once commented that I would run a marathon when pigs flew. They are flying today in Cincinnati. All my friends have done a marathon, and I feel left out. Oprah has done a marathon. I have trained enough to lose 7 pounds and 1 dress size. Mostly, I am here because at 43, life is too short not to take risks in challenging the who I am and what I can be. Yes, this is Mom’s Midlife Marathon.

Mile 1. Somewhere on Ezzard Charles Drive. My watch says 12 minutes and a few seconds. Too fast. I will have to slow down. There are scores of runners wearing purple shirts, signifying that they are have raised money for leukemia research. They wear hospital bracelets bearing the name of their ‘training partner’ who has leukemia. I am not running for anyone except myself. I resolve to make a donation to the leukemia society. I start walking with Debbie, a grandmother from Newport. She, too, plans to walk some and run some.

“I did the math. If I walk a mile, and run a while, I can do this thing in less than 7 hours.” She insisted. I am relieved to hear that someone else has come up with the same plan. I am both relieved and validated. I am not thirsty, but I drink a cup of water anyway.

Mile 5. I am in Newport, heading across an Ohio River Bridge. I look at my watch. It is just after 8:00 am. I am on track with my plan. I have walked some, but run more. The route so far has been lined with well-wishers who shout encouragement. Each water stop is like a carnival, with volunteers dressed up in zany costumes. Everybody is upbeat. On the bridge, a barbershop-like group is singing God Bless America, with the Cincinnati skyline in the background. I take their picture with my disposable camera. I am too choked up to breathe for a few moments. I walk again to conserve energy.

Mile 9. Eden Park. 9am. Still on track with walking up hills and running downhills. I am familiar with this area of Cincinnati, as I lived near here for 2 years. I know that there are some long down-hills coming up. I feel really good. I jog for awhile with Joan, from Anderson Township in Cincinnati, who is running today in memory of her mother who died last fall.

She tears up. I tear up. Again, I am so choked up that I cannot breathe. I didn’t plan on this being such an emotional journey. At the water stop, a man from a local TV station hands me a carnation in honor Mother’s Day. I decide to use one of my tissues to wipe away the tears.

Mile 13. Somewhere on Erie Avenue. Not yet 10:00 am. I am elated, because I know that I am halfway through, and I am on target to finish before the 2:00 pm when the finish line will be dismantled. I have met up with some old friends of my husband’s that live on the route. I stopped to take their picture, and they in turn take mine. The water stop has been done up with a pink Cadillac and girls in black felt skirts with pink pigs instead of pink poodles……….

I marvel at the creativity on the part of volunteers. Along the way I have seen people dressed up as pigs, as masked crusaders, as cartoon characters. There has been music, too. I tossed $1 in the donation cup of a teen band playing ‘Free Bird’ somewhere along Madison Road. In O’Brienville, the mood was reggae, with the beat of steel drums to move us along.

Mile 16. Not yet 11:00 am. I give up on running. I have 10 miles to go. I resolve to walk the rest of the way. I feel hydrated, as I have drank one or two cups at each water station. I have fueled up on Skittles periodically, my sport food of choice.

I am concerned about my feet. I feel hot spots. Blisters never crossed my mind until now. I try to put them out of my mind. I am walking now with a woman from California, who has flown in to do the run with her daughter who lives in Cincinnati. She is concerned that her daughter is somewhere behind us and may have given up. I try to reassure her, and in doing do, reassure myself that I could finish.

Mile 20. Noon. I have 2 hours to walk the final 6 miles. I do the math. I can still do this. My hips are numb, and my legs are sore, but I still feel good from the waist up. I have taken off my left shoe to get out a pebble. My sock is bloody. I thought that I must be getting a blister. I resist the temptation to check the other foot. I get up and start walking again. I meet up with a mother-daughter team from Chicago. They are supported by a second daughter riding a mountain bike.

The biker offers to get me some water. I am grateful, as the water stations are being dismantled and the water bottle I am carrying is getting low. I see an EMS crew helping a fallen runner into a rescue van. I try not to think about the possibility of injury or medical emergency. I run through my checklist: hydration, fuel, legs, feet. I don’t feel bad enough to quit.

Mile 24. There is no longer anyone manning the mile markers. I see the mileage spray painted on the pavement. 1:00 pm. I can still finish with 30 minute miles. I am absolutely miserable. I cannot ever recall ever being this miserable. Except during childbirth. Now that was an ordeal.

Nothing that has happened today can compare with the physical and emotional toil of labor and delivery. I think about the encouraging notes that my children including in my Mother’s Day card. I tear up, and plod on.

Mile 25. 1:30 pm. There is a cheerful man running an impromptu water stop. He has tapped into the fire hydrant, and apologizes for the taste of the cool water. I see in him the face of God, for still being out on the course at this late hour. I begin to walk with a woman who has at least 20 years and 100 pounds on me. I foolishly ask if this is her first marathon, too. She is quick to point out that this is her 56th marathon, and that she always finishes this slow. I am humbled, and grateful to be finishing at all at my size. Fitness does come in all shapes and sizes. That was one fit woman. I am reminded of Pheidipiddes, the Greek who ran from the Plains of Marathon to Athens to proclaim the good news of the Greek victory over the Persians. The first marathoner dropped dead after he delivered his message. I put aside this thought and move on.

Mile 26.2. The Finish. I look for Ernst. I know that he will be there, somewhere. He gently takes the camera clutched in my hand to take my picture. It is over in something shy of 6 hours and 48 minutes. Someone hands me a medal: a bronze flying pig. It is something to hold onto whenever I want to remember this day. I know that the memory of today will be glossed over in a few short days, just like the memory of childbirth dims next to the glow of parenthood. A Mother’s Day well spent. But next year, I may opt for breakfast in bed.

Box- Other local finishers in Sunday’s Flying Pig Marathon:

Ernst C-dub 3:24
Rick H. 3:27
Jamey G. 4:12
Joni M. 4:40
Sarah H. 4:41

robins

ok, so....i have spent so much time in my yard pulling up wild onions, and yanking out dandelions, and moving roses, and digging up clumps of dead grass.....that it never occurred to me to look up rather than down .....after i returned from the rainy-day 5K at shakertown, i opted for a few inside chores.....and when i was changing the sheets in the guest room that our eldest child uses when he comes home...i chanced to look out the big plant window to see a not only a nest in the redbud tree straight ahead....but two hatchling robins being fed by mamma robin...wow....just like on pbs......so very sweet......so very springlike

a minor beating.....

ok, so....earlier this week my Facebook home page popped a notice that the outlaw brother-in-law who got me started in this Facebook mania had a birthday coming up....so i sent a global email to all of our extended kin...as is our custom to start a email to encourage others to get us all up-to-date on our happenings.....i mentioned how pleased i was that i now had the opportunity to pass my spare time with scramble and other word games, and how i was pleased to have gotten to know his sisters through Facebook.....and how much i enjoyed playing word games with them.....and.....then i got an email from yet another of the siblings that an actual sister of my spouse shared the same birthday....and that i had committed a faux pas by mentioning one and not the other...who knew?.......and i am still angry over this.....as i have been in this family for 26 years with meager remembrance of my own birthday......not at 30, or at 40......and when i got flowers from my youngest outlaw at age 50 I was tearful because this was out of the blue........thankfully my extended family-outlaw/scramble partner just sent around a global response admitting that she was also unaware of the dual celebration....and she has known this core family longer than i......i am thankful for small favors.....as my feelings are quite tender at this time in life.....

working for the weekend....

ok, so......friday is one of my favorite days...so full of promise for a relaxing weekend away from work.....the derby is tomorrow.....hopefully the rain will pass through quickly and the track will be ideal for this run for the roses....i'll be pulling for the filly....sunday we travel to lexington for some graduation festivities.....the education of my first-born has gone by in a blink.....

worries and woes.....

ok, so i have taken to waking up about 3:30 am...and worrying until the alarm goes off at 6:30......some worries are valid, some not, and each appears to be out of my control.....such details do not stop a parent from worrying, especially since said parent may have to play clean-up later on.....